l VAN O’NEAL INVITED TO MALAYSIA

Malaysian Prime Minister Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has succeeded in bringing about some level of unity among opposing political parties here.

Leader of the Opposition SVG Green Party, Ivan O’Neal will be part of this country’s official delegation when Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves makes a reciprocal visit to Malaysia in June. O’Neal’s invitation came from Badawi himself on Tuesday. {{more}}

During his address to Parliament on Tuesday, Opposition Leader Arnhim Eustace mentioned that O’Neal had fought on Malaysian soil between 1963 and 1965 to defend Malaysian sovereignty against Indonesian invasion, and that O’Neal was present in the House of Assembly wearing his medals as testimony.

Prime Minister Badawi, while responding to the remarks made by Prime Minister Gonsalves and Opposition Leader Eustace, thanked O’Neal for his contribution to Malaysia.

Following the sitting of the house,Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves introduced O’Neal to the Malaysian leader. O’Neal spoke in the Malaysian language of Bahasa Malayu to Prime Minister Badawi and the conversation landed O’Neal the trip to Malaysia.

Eustace’s New Democratic Party (NDP) secured 44 percent of the vote in the December 5, 2005 general elections. However, that translated to three of the 15 seats with the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP)’s 56 percent of the votes translating to 12 seats.

The SVG Green Party fielded four candidates in the 2005 poll and came up with 37 votes.